Are you missing the buzz and community of Bristol’s vibrant arts scene? We’ve got just the thing. We’re joining forces with Bristol Old Vic, Watershed, Colston Hall, St Pauls Carnival, Trinity, Spike Island, St George’s Bristol, Arnolfini, Paraorchestra and Bristol Museums to launch Bristol Arts Channel for a pilot programme this June.

You may remember that a couple of years ago we had a little event called Demostage, that we ran quarterly. It was a platform for new ideas – not a scratch night, but an informal environment where artists could share their thinking about a new project, or something they were stuck on, or a wild idea that needed some other brains to make sense of it.

Are you an emerging theatre company, producer or artist committed to touring your work nationwide?

Our friends at Paines Plough are working in collaboration with a wider network of established touring and producing companies which MAYK is part of, and which also includes China Plate, English Touring Theatre (ETT), Graeae, Kneehigh, Fuel, Out of Joint, Tiata Fahodzi, Wise Children and Yellow Earth to share knowledge and experience with emerging companies, producers and artists committed to touring, and to then introduce them to Paines Plough’s Small Scale Touring Network (SSTN) across the UK.

We asked Sleepdogs’ Timothy X Atack to write something to accompany our (not) a Mayfest party playlist, which played out live on Spotify on Thursday 7 May 2020. We shared Tim’s text over Twitter throughout the evening, offering a parallel experience for those listening in to the playlist in the kitchens and living rooms. Here’s the full text:

In case you missed it, we recently recorded a podcast where MAYK’s Co-Directors Kate Yedigaroff and Matthew Austin discussed what it feels like for Mayfest not to be happening this year, and what the future may or may not hold. You can listen to the podcast on the soundcloud link below, and we’ve also included a text version of the conversation below.

Songs for the end of the world.

Spanning three years of Mayfest artists, Arias for an Apocalypse was a programme developed for Mayfest Radio. What songs would you choose to hear in the apocalypse?

We’re missing the chats, the fresh thoughts & all the different faces. It felt good & useful when we spent an afternoon talking with artists the week before last about their emergency ACE bids. So we thought it might be nice to keep this invitation going

We wanted to update you on how MAYK is responding to the Covid-19 crisis. In mid-March, we closed our office and cancelled or postponed all our performances for the foreseeable future. We feel that absence most in Mayfest of course – a programme that we were so proud of. It’s also true that the process of bringing together that extraordinary collection of experiences gives us the spirit to plough on and consider new unchartered territories. How do these stories continue to be told? How do we best support our artist community; the bedrock of everything we do? And how do we be brave and work with integrity at this time?

We are very disappointed to say that we must postpone the upcoming performances of Undersong.

The nature of this special show – and part of its particular appeal – is the opportunity to experience music in a place of intimacy. To share moments of beauty and surprise up-close with fellow audience members, to witness performers sharing elaborate harmonies within touching distance.